Chapter 52: Cheng Ge, Don’t Be Sad
Wen Ling’s tone was very calm, but his words made Cheng Ge’s brain nearly short-circuit. Cheng Ge turned his head stiffly, bit by bit, toward Wen Ling, only to find that Wen Ling wasn’t looking at him. instead, he was staring down at some unknown corner of the ground.
Cheng Ge didn’t know if Wen Ling was recounting the past to him or just muttering to himself out of emotion, but he felt that Wen Ling was currently feeling sorrowful. So, he scooted over, sitting a bit closer until his arm pressed against Wen Ling’s.
“He was sick back then. I don’t know what illness it was, but it wasn’t fatal. Later, my mother sent him to the hospital for injections. As a result, because the needle carried a virus, my brother got infected. He was transferred to a big hospital, but in the end, he still died.”
Cheng Ge’s heart pounded wildly. He found such a thing terrifying. “Could it… could it be that the hospital wasn’t a legitimate one?”
“Yes. Later on, that hospital was shut down because of similar incidents, and the people involved were arrested. My mother told me this.”
“At first, my mother wanted to appeal, but he took money from the hospital and forced my mother not to go.”
While Cheng Ge was shocked, he pondered who the “he” in Wen Ling’s mouth was. The evidence pointed to Wen Ling’s father.
“During my brother’s final days, I lived in the hospital with him. I could smell the disinfectant every day. My brother said he hated that smell, and I hated it too.”
“My brother told me not to get injections and not to go to hospitals, or else I’d end up like him, which wouldn’t be good. After he told me those things, he passed away the next day.”
“That’s why I hate it.”
Cheng Ge finally understood. Wen Ling was explaining why he was so resistant to hospitals, needles, and the smell of disinfectant. Cheng Ge couldn’t completely empathize, but he could fully understand Wen Ling’s behavior.
At the same time, he felt annoyed with himself. He shouldn’t have been so fierce with him at the start, nor should he have pretended to be.
“I know some illnesses require injections and hospitalization. Even if you didn’t tell me, I knew that.”
“But I still hate it.”
Cheng Ge remembered a long time ago, during the period when he unilaterally had a bad relationship with Wen Ling. Wen Ling had a fever and refused to go to the hospital. Cheng Ge thought Wen Ling was just throwing a tantrum and had speechlessly told him, “Then don’t burn your brain out.”
Suddenly, a lot of words choked in his throat. In the end, Cheng Ge chose the briefest response: “Sorry.”
Wen Ling turned his head to look at Cheng Ge, not understanding. “Why are you sorry?”
Cheng Ge shook his head. “Nothing… I’ll try my best to help you avoid these things next time.”
Wen Ling looked at Cheng Ge and curved his eyes into a smile.
[Conquest value +1%]
Cheng Ge felt a bit sad. He didn’t want Wen Ling to get sick again, nor to be involved with the things he hated and feared. That was his sincere hope. But accompanied by the increase in the conquest value, that sincerity seemed mixed with calculation.
In the end, no matter how good he was to Wen Ling, it couldn’t be considered pure. It was normal for Wen Ling to harbor feelings of dislike toward him; it was what he deserved.
Wen Ling was truly so pitiful, Cheng Ge thought. This wasn’t condescending sympathy or pity, but rather looking at and feeling the world from Wen Ling’s perspective. There really wasn’t a single good thing in it. In the end, even Cheng Ge, this guy who had been good to him for a while, wasn’t anything good either.
Cheng Ge’s heart felt heavy and painful. His thoughts drifted endlessly, returning to Wen Ling’s dream—that hot afternoon, the dream of being hit while crossing on a green light. At the time, he had hoped the ambulance would arrive quickly, hoped Wen Ling would receive excellent medical care. He hadn’t realized that just entering a hospital was a form of torture for Wen Ling, let alone getting stitches and being hospitalized.
“Why are your eyes red?” Wen Ling leaned closer to Cheng Ge. Meeting Cheng Ge’s gaze, which hadn’t fully recovered, he frowned slightly. “Is Cheng Ge crying?”
“Bullshit!” Cheng Ge dodged Wen Ling’s gaze, but realized his eyes were indeed a bit moist. But that wasn’t crying! How could a strapping grown man cry?!
Wen Ling’s head followed him like a shadow, chasing Cheng Ge’s face. “Really? But I see your eyes are still a little wet.”
“Why does Cheng Ge want to cry?”
“I already said I’m not crying!” Cheng Ge, lacking confidence but acting bold, decided to go all out and covered Wen Ling’s eyes. “Do you think everyone is a crybaby?”
“Okay,” Wen Ling began to ponder Cheng Ge’s words. “…Then who is the crybaby?”
Cheng Ge wanted to say “you,” because Wen Ling was the crybaby. But he felt that since Wen Ling had suffered so much, what did it matter if he cried? It would be abnormal not to cry, right? If he said that, wouldn’t he be poking at someone’s sore spot?
“A dummy.”
Wen Ling got to the bottom of it: “Who is the dummy?”
Cheng Ge: “…”
“…Me.”
Wen Ling blinked several times, his long, soft eyelashes fluttering against Cheng Ge’s palm. “Didn’t you say you weren’t a crybaby?”
“I don’t know!” Cheng Ge kept a straight face and physically turned Wen Ling’s face forward. “The car is almost here. Be quiet for me.”
“Oh.” Wen Ling hunched his back slightly, sat up straight, and stayed quiet for a moment. Then he suddenly frowned and looked at Cheng Ge, his eyes filled with straightforward confusion.
Cheng Ge suddenly laughed because he could completely see what Wen Ling wanted to ask: Why do I have to be quiet just because the car is almost here?
This was bad. Cheng Ge found Wen Ling’s foolishness cute. Why hadn’t he realized before that Wen Ling was so amusing?
Cheng Ge rested his hand on Wen Ling’s shoulder and pressed his forehead against the back of his own hand, unable to suppress the corners of his mouth.
Wen Ling shrugged his shoulder, looking a bit worried. “Why are you shaking?”
Cheng Ge no longer cared about saving face. He just wanted to tease him. “Because I’m crying.”
As a result, Wen Ling lifted his other hand, patted Cheng Ge’s head, quieted down, and acted as a human crying pillow for Cheng Ge.
Cheng Ge: “!!!???”
Cheng Ge instantly froze all over. It felt like an electric shock, a numbing sensation running through his whole body. It was tingly and itchy, like… like a cat scratching at his heart?
This wasn’t right! Shouldn’t Wen Ling ask him why he was crying? Why did he go straight to physical comfort?!
Wait! Why didn’t he have the urge to hit Wen Ling? Shouldn’t he pin anyone who dared to pat his head to the ground and rub their face in the dirt? Shouldn’t he wake up in the middle of the night shouting, “No, is this person sick!?”
What was this situation now?
He usually patted Wen Ling because the guy was like a child, and because Wen Ling liked head pats, he did it often. Was Wen Ling treating him like a child now too!?
Meanwhile, Wen Ling, who was earnestly comforting him, noticed that Cheng Ge had stopped shaking immediately. He concluded that head-patting was indeed a good method for comforting people.
Cheng Ge’s body remained tense for a long time. His eyes darted around, unsure of how to react.
Wen Ling didn’t know why Cheng Ge suddenly cried, but every time he cried, it was because he was sad and afraid. So he said to Cheng Ge, “Cheng Ge, don’t be sad, and don’t be afraid.”
“I will stay with you.”
Cheng Ge’s heartbeat seemed to stop for a second, then began to beat violently. Every time he told Wen Ling he would stay with him forever, he was coaxing him, sometimes even needing to use lying tools.
But he knew Wen Ling was serious.
He also knew that there would never be anyone else who would say “I will stay with you” to him with such seriousness again.
Recommended Reads
